Project Uncensored

The book includes summaries of the censored stories, in some cases citing multiple small and independent sources that told the stories, plus updates on new developments in the stories. Also included are substantial updates on the top censored stories of the previous year, most of which are still making news except that they’re not making news: they’re still ignored by the U.S. corporate media cartel. Meanwhile it’s so easy to waste our energy complaining about how the corporate media reports stories, while greater harm is done by it not telling stories at all.

“Censored 2009” also includes hundreds of pages of analysis of corporate media conduct on a variety of issues from numerous talented authors. Here are the best recent concrete examples of how debates are conducted in a manner that completely shuts out important and popular positions.

This week we’re being lied to about a bankers’ bailout. We’re being told that the stock market is the same thing as the economy, that both are about to implode unless we borrow more money than most national budgets and give it to banks with no questions asked. And the public is being ridiculed for interfering in our democracy by telling our representatives that we don’t believe the lies.

Yet, too many of us do believe the lies. After the media outlets told us Monday’s No vote was a disaster, they polled us on which party was more responsible for it, not on who should get the most credit for it. Then they reported that huge numbers of us blamed this party and huge numbers blamed that party. And I don’t need a poll to tell you that huge numbers of people heard those reports and FORGOT the possibility that someone might be given credit rather than blame for a vote that, for once, matched the will of the public.

Small and independent media outlets are trying to do the work of a democratic communications system right now on this issue, as always. And grassroots groups that understand the problem are buying advertisements stating their admirable viewpoints in the New York Times, funding a company that daily defends the military-banker complex. They hate to do it, of course. They feel really, really bad about doing it. But what choice do they have? The smaller outlets are too small. And all the money we aren’t giving to message ads we’re giving to political campaigns to spend on election ads on corporate television — more than enough money every election to have gone out and created new television networks from scratch.

Here’s an idea that must be more brilliant than it sounds, since nobody seems capable of grasping it: small media outlets are small because WE DON’T FUND THEM. The right-wingers have the Washington Times and Fox News because THEY FUND THEM.

Think about it.

I’m serious.

Stop.

Now.

And think about it.

Here are some media outlets that show up in “Censored 2009” as having reported the news: Truthout, Alternet, The Progressive, Global Research, In These Times, The Nation, Pacifica Radio, Inter Press Service, Common Dreams. Why not support these media outlets? Why not advertise with them? Why not hold events to promote them, and Seven Stories Press, the publisher of “Censored 2009” and many other great books? How can the thrill of seeing your ad in the New York Times begin to compare to the importance of this?

I was happy to see that the first story honored by “Censored 2009” was one that I published on After Downing Street, which — yes — operates on your generous donations! Here’s that story:

In fact, readers of After Downing Street, despite its relatively narrow focus, have been well informed by multiple stories and discussions of several other topics that made Project Censored’s top 25 list:

But these stories have all been better summarized by this new book, and added to by a collection of critical but censored news from a wide variety of areas. Below is the list. Check out how timely #25 is.

TOP 25 MOST CENSORED NEWS STORIES

#1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation
After Downing Street, July 6, 2007
Title: “Is the United States Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month? Or Is It More?”
Author: Michael Schwartz

Over one million Iraqis have met violent deaths as a result of the 2003 invasion by the United States. According to a study conducted by the polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB) the human toll exceeded one millions as of August 2007. In addition, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration, in 2007 almost 5 million Iraqis had been displaced by violence in their country, the vast majority of which had fled since 2003.

More than 23,000 representatives of US private industry are working with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect information on fellow Americans.

# 4 US International Law Enforcement Academy is Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America
Upside Down World, June 14, 2007
Title: “Exporting US ‘Criminal Justice’ to Latin America”
Author: Community in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador

The Progressive, August 2007
Title: “Bush’s Executive Order Even Worse Than the One on Iraq”
Author: Matthew Rothschild

President Bush has signed two executive orders that would allow the US Treasury Department to seize the property of any person perceived to, directly or indirectly, pose a threat to US operations in the Middle East.

The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (H.R. 1955) passed the House on October 23, 2007, by a vote of 404–6. Author of the bill Jane Harman (D-CA) explains, “We’re studying the phenomenon of people with radical beliefs who turn into people who would use violence.”

Civil liberty and religious freedom groups and grassroots activists with helped to stall passage of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act in the Senate bit some members of Congress continue to push for Internet censorship and racial profiling as necessary to prevent “homegrown terrorism.”

Times of India, March 10, 2008
Title: “Trafficking racket: Indian workers file case against US employer”
Author: Chidanand Rajghatta

Human rights advocates warn that the guest worker program in the United States victimizes immigrant workers. Labor organizers, lawyers, and policy makers say that the H-2 visa program has locked thousands into a modern-day form of indentured servitude.

On December 7, 2007, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, disclosed on the floor of the US Senate that he had declassified documents that state, “An executive order cannot limit a president. There is no constitutional requirement for a president to issue a new executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of a previous executive order. Rather than violate an executive order, the president can instead modified or waived it… And the Department of Justice is bound by the President’s legal determinations.”

Over 300 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have come forward recount the brutal impact of the ongoing occupations. The Winter Soldier hearings in Silver Spring, Maryland, in March 2008, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Soldiers’ presented multiple testimony of atrocities they witnessed or participated in directly.

In September 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The resolution called for recognition of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and control over their lands and resources.

Testimony in the Japanese parliament, broadcast live on Japanese television in January 2008, challenged the premise and validity of the Global War on Terror. Parliament member Yukihisa Fujita insisted that an investigation be conducted into the war’s origin: the events of 9/11.